Slatereports on two identical surveillance bills filed in the Texas House (HB 1608 pdf) and Senate (SB 786 pdf) that aim to restrict warrantless tracking of cellphones:

According to the Department of Justice, cellphone users can be tracked without a warrant because “no reasonable expectation of privacy” applies to location data. But lawmakers in Texas disagree—and are proposing strict new tracking regulations that could place the state at the forefront of nationwide efforts to rein in government surveillance.

Two identical bills filed at the end of last month in the state House and Senate propose a series of amendments to the Texas code of criminal procedure. The bills, submitted by Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, and Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, would in all but exceptional cases require law enforcement agencies to get a search warrant to obtain cellphone location information—whether the phone is being tracked in real-time or retrospectively.

In addition, the amendments would oblige all telecom providers in the state to produce an annual transparency report showing the number of surveillance requests made, broken down by each law enforcement agency making the request and detailing the type of data desired. They would also limit the amount of time a judge can keep secret a court order issued to authorizing tracking. This would mean that after 180 days the order would have to be “unsealed” and revealed to the public, unless there is “good cause” shown to further extend the secrecy.

Last year, a congressional inquiry revealed that the major wireless carriers received more than 1.3 million requests for subscriber data from law enforcement in 2011 alone. This revelation disgruntled privacy and civil liberties groups nationwide, and it’s possible that legislators in other states may follow Hughes and Hinojosa’s lead in proposing that warrants be required before accessing location data. It’s unclear, of course, whether the bill will eventually become law, as police in the state can be expected to lobby aggressively against it.